Syarhei Skrabets Does not Plead Guilty and Refuses to Give Evidence :: Charter'97 :: News

In the Supreme Court of Belarus the trial against the well-known oppositionist Syarhei Skrabets and his brother Alyaksandr Skrabets. On January 17 the judicial examination started with a refusal of Syarhei Skrabets to give evidence to the court, the Radio Svaboda informs.

Before that the judge announced a break to certify the genuineness of the signature of Syarhei Skrabets at a number of documents. Former deputy stated that he had not been acquainted with those documents during the investigation, and his signatures were counterfeited. As it turned out on January 17, nobody had carried out an expert examination. Judge Viktar Rakitski was satisfied with the reports of penitentiary servants, according to which Skrabets allegedly was familiarized with the documents, and simply changed the form of his signature.

Besides, the judge has denied a request of Syarhei Skrabets to gather to aggregate his statement about his persecution by Alyaksandr Lukashenka to the materials of the case files. Judge believes that it does not have bearing to the episodes of the case.

The charges were read by a representative of the prosecutor’s office Asipchyk. As said by her, Syarhei Skrabets is charged with three types of crimes: helping defraud a bank of $490,000 in loans, inciting a person to give a large bribe, and illegal business activities. The politician’s brother Alyaksandr is allegedly involved in defrauding loans.

Judge gave a possibility to express on the presented accusations. Syarhei Skrabets refused to give evidence, and called the claims of the prosecutor’s office absurd. “You could be accused in the same way as well,” he said to the judge.

Skrabets’ brother Alyaksandr chose another line. He refused to give evidence in the court, but he confirmed everything he said during the investigation. His testimony was read after a request of a representative of the prosecutor’s office. It followed f from them that Alyaksandr Skrabets partially pleads guilty. In particular, he admits that he knew that the information for receiving a loan for BelBabaevskoe, headed by him after S. Skrabets, was inaccurate. But Alyaksandr Skrabets does not admit that from the beginning he had planned not to return credits.

As for preparation for giving a bribe, Alyaksandr Skrabets does not acknowledge this either.